Anna Nicole's cause of death still a mystery

Dania Beach (Fla), Feb 10: An autopsy on former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith did not immediately determine the cause of death, a Florida medical examiner said.

Broward County medical examiner Dr Joshua Perper said it could take three to five weeks to finish toxicological and other tests. He said he could not rule out drugs or natural causes but she was not shot, stabbed or beaten.

The sudden death of the former exotic dancer and billionaire's widow on Thursday in Hollywood, Florida, at age 39 left myriad questions about her tumultuous last months and the future of her 5-month-old daughter.

A California judge yesterday refused to order an emergency DNA test on Smith's remains but ordered her body preserved until a February 20 hearing in the paternity case surrounding her baby.

Smith's ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, sought the emergency order as part of his attempt to prove that he is the father of Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. Smith's lawyer and companion, Howard K Stern, has said he is the father and is named in the baby's birth certificate.

Smith's DNA would not typically be required to prove paternity, but Birkhead's attorney, Debra Opri, said she sought the test to make sure the infant being tested was Smith's.

''It is a legitimate legal concern that the baby being tested is Anna Nicole's,'' she said.

A source told Reuters that Dannielynn was cared for overnight by the mother of Bahamian Immigration Minister Shane Gibson but was picked up yesterday morning by Stern, who flew out of Nassau with the child to an unknown destination.

Smith's 20-year-old son died last September under what Bahamian authorities said were suspicious circumstances, three days after the birth of her daughter in the Bahamas. A pathologist hired by the model said her son apparently died from a drug overdose.

Autopsy Inconclusive

At a news conference outside the medical examiner's office in Dania Beach, Florida, Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said prescription drugs were found in Smith's hotel room but there were no illegal narcotics, as had been reported by various media.

He said there was no sign a crime had been committed.

''At this point, no evidence has been revealed to suggest that a crime occurred. We found no illegal drugs, only prescription medicines.'' He did not name the medicines.

Perper said there was no immediate indication that Smith had taken any large amount of prescription medication because there were no pills in her stomach. But he said he would have to wait for toxicology test results to determine if drugs were involved in her death.

''At this time we do not make a determination of the cause and the manner of death,'' he said.

Smith's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, suggested on the ABC program ''Good Morning America,'' that drugs had played a role in the death of her daughter.

''I think she had too many drugs, just like (her late son) Danny. And I tried to warn her about the drugs and the people she hung around. She didn't listen,'' Arthur said. ''She was too drugged up. The last interview I saw of her, she was so wasted.'' Smith, who was born Vickie Lynn Hogan, was dogged by talk of addiction to drugs, including prescription painkillers, that was fueled by her slurred words and unusual behavior at awards shows and other public events.

Tangled Legal Fight

Smith, a voluptuous platinum blonde who idolized screen legend Marilyn Monroe, gained fame as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year in 1993 and as a model for Guess? jeans.

She starred in her own short-lived reality television show and had several film roles.

In 1994, she married oil billionaire J Howard Marshall, when she was 26 and he was 89. Marshall, who was worth 1.6 billion dollar, died 14 months later and Smith spent much of the following decade battling his family over the estate. Marshall's family called her a gold digger.

But the tangled legal fight is unresolved. A California court awarded her 474 million dollar but another court cut the award to 88 million dollar and an appeals court then ruled she was entitled to nothing. The US Supreme Court last May overturned that ruling and gave Smith another chance to pursue Marshall's fortune.

Reuters